Preheat the oven to 400 F. Place your baking tray in the oven so that it is hot when you place your scones on it to bake. While heating up, toss chopped pecans on the tray for 2-5 minutes to toast. They should brown a little bit and give off a strong nutty aroma. As soon as you smell this, pull them out of the oven! You should check them every minute. Once they are toasted, set them aside to cool before adding into scone dough.
Cut your butter into tiny, ¼-½ inch cubes. The smaller they are, the easier it will be to incorporate them later. I like to use a bench scraper to cut my cutter! Place butter chunks onto a plate or bowl and keep them in the freezer while you prepare your other ingredients.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Grab your butter out of the freezer and toss it into your flour bowl. Using a pastry cutter or your hands, cut the butter into your flour mixture. If using your hands (my favorite method) you can pick up large chunks of butter and rub them between your thumb and the rest of your fingers to flatten them out into the flour mix. Think about the hand gesture you use when referencing money! Keep doing this until you’re left with only small, flattish chunks of butter. (See picture above under “mixing method.”) They should be no bigger than peas. If you feel your butter is melting or not staying cold enough, place your mixing bowl in the freezer for about 15 minutes and then resume.
Use your hand to create a well in the center of your mixture. Pour in half the cream. Make sure it’s cold! Then use your hand to bring the outside mixture into the center where you poured the cream. Gently mix until all your flour mixture is coated in cream. Slowly add in more cream as needed. Refer to the picture under “tips for success” to get an idea of what your dough should look like.
Once your dough gets to your desired consistency, gently fold in the pecans using your hands.
Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Pat dough down into a rectangle about 8 x 12 inches. You can use a rolling pin for this, but roll lightly as you don’t want to crush the layers! From here, fold the dough into thirds like an envelope. NOT lengthwise. Take your folded dough and turn it so that the fold seams are running vertically. This is one “turn.” Roll your dough back into another 8×12 inch rectangle and repeat the folding process (aka a turn) two more times. You should have folded and rerolled it three times when you’re done. End with the dough back in an 8×12 inch rectangle so you can cut the scones. (Refer to the pictures above, under “the secret to flaky scones.”)
Cut your rectangle down the center vertically and horizontally so that you now have 4 rectangles. Cut each rectangle diagonally so that you end up with 8 triangles in total.
Take your baking sheet out of the oven and line with parchment paper. Place your scones 2 inches apart. They shouldn’t spread much in the oven. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-18 minutes until the top starts to get a light golden crust. You can also test these by gently touching the top of it. It should spring back when it is cooked completely. Let cool for 5 minutes before icing.
